Financial research concept

LTL Revenue per Hundredweight: Freight Yield Explained

LTL revenue per hundredweight measures freight revenue for each 100 pounds handled, providing a yield indicator that reflects pricing, distance, shipment weight, fuel, and freight mix.

By Lee BaileyPublished Sep 18, 2026
  1. Revenue per hundredweight is a yield measure, not a pure price index
  2. Reporting scope matters
  3. Hundredweight yield connects to revenue per shipment
  4. Higher yield does not guarantee higher profit
  5. Primary-source examples
  6. Part of the LTL Freight Operating Model
  7. See It in Company Research
  8. Continue Research

LTL revenue per hundredweight measures less-than-truckload revenue earned for each 100 pounds of freight handled.

A simplified calculation is:

revenue per hundredweight = applicable LTL revenue ÷ total hundredweight

One hundredweight equals 100 pounds.

Revenue per hundredweight is a yield measure, not a pure price index

LTL carriers often use revenue per hundredweight to discuss yield and pricing trends.

But the measure can change even when contractual rates on identical freight do not.

Old Dominion Freight Line explains that revenue per hundredweight is affected by fuel surcharges, weight per shipment, and length of haul. Freight class, commodity mix, customer mix, accessorial services, and geography can matter too.

Calling every increase "pricing" can therefore overstate what the metric proves.

Reporting scope matters

Carriers do not always present the same version of the measure.

Old Dominion reported second-quarter 2026 LTL revenue per hundredweight of $37.84 under a measure that includes fuel surcharges. XPO reported gross revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharge, of $26.09.

Saia publishes both reported and fuel-excluded revenue-per-hundredweight measures.

Those values should not be compared without first aligning the fuel-surcharge and revenue definitions.

Hundredweight yield connects to revenue per shipment

A useful approximation is:

revenue per shipment ≈ revenue per hundredweight × pounds per shipment ÷ 100

For example, a $30 revenue-per-hundredweight yield on a 1,400-pound shipment implies about:

$30 × 1,400 ÷ 100 = $420 per shipment

The relationship is useful for understanding mix. A carrier can report higher revenue per shipment simply because the average shipment got heavier.

Higher yield does not guarantee higher profit

Yield can rise while profitability falls if labor, purchased transportation, insurance, equipment, service-center, or other costs rise faster.

Likewise, a carrier may accept lower-yield freight when it improves network density or fills otherwise unused capacity.

Read yield beside shipment volume, weight, service quality, and the LTL Operating Ratio.

Primary-source examples

LTL revenue per hundredweight is most useful as a freight-yield measure whose pricing signal must be separated from weight, distance, fuel, and customer mix.

Part of the LTL Freight Operating Model

Connect shipments, weight, tonnage, freight yield, revenue per shipment, and operating ratio to understand less-than-truckload carrier economics.

How the model fits together
  • Shipment volume and weight: When periods and definitions align, tonnage per day is approximately shipments per day multiplied by weight per shipment. Reading all three separates shipment-count demand from freight-weight mix.
  • Yield and operating efficiency: Revenue per hundredweight and revenue per shipment are complementary yield views. Operating ratio then shows operating expense relative to operating revenue, with lower generally better on a consistent basis.

See It in Company Research

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